When someone says “artificial intelligence,” the first thing that comes to mind might be a vision from movies like Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, or 1982 cult classic Blade Runner.
But when it comes to the ecommerce sector, it’s less about human-like robotics and more about the learning technologies and algorithms that provide the foundation.
AI can help today’s online retailers deliver an optimized customer experience on and off their ecommerce websites by using collected business and customer data to make better business decisions and more accurately predict the future.
Let’s look at some of the ways AI and associated technologies are moving the ecommerce industry forward, from improving customer interactions to streamlining business processes.
Over the past couple of years, AI technology has matured and become a powerful tool to boost sales and optimize operations. Even many small ecommerce businesses are using technology with some kind of AI capability.
Artificial intelligence isn’t just a novel technology implemented for its “cool factor.” Implementing AI has the potential to impact any number of business functions across your organization.
To understand how it could impact your business, it helps to have an understanding of the components of artificial intelligence.
The definition of AI is broad, and encompasses data mining, natural language processing, and machine learning.
There are plenty of use cases in ecommerce for AI, and you’re probably familiar with a lot of them — you just might not know that the technology they’re built on is actually related to AI. Here are six of the most common:
eCommerce virtual assistants (VAs) are chatbots that use language processing and machine learning technologies to understand customer queries and offer the needed support accordingly. This is not new to us anymore. We’re all eCommerce businesses prioritize using virtual assistants because they’re active 24/7 and can handle queries effortlessly. Importantly, this improves a business’s scalability, too. Virtual assistants can perform several tasks ranging from product research to listing to handling inventory. For customers, VAs represent easy and quick access to information and assistance.
Smart search is also referred to as “searchandizing.” It’s a combination of merchandising and search. It blends merchandising techniques with online search practices. Searchandizing involves advanced elements, like, for instance, faceted search, navigation, autocomplete, recommended product listings, recent searches, and many other features that are merged with established search techniques. eCommerce platforms use image annotation to offer personalized, user-friendly, and useful search experiences through behavioral data.
Personalization in the eCommerce industry is remodeling the shopping experience according to an individual customer’s pain points, needs, preferences, and tastes. For example, they can show recently viewed products, run an automated personalized email campaign, or create a personalized product list.
We can also translate it as the strategy of personalizing the online shopping experience by dynamically or actively showing content, whether it be campaigns, brands, or products, to customers. This depends on their click-through, browsing behavior, purchase history, etc.With personalized product recommendations, AI eCommerce stores can benefit from customers’ inclination to impulse buy. You can also cross-sell or upsell products by recommending different products to the customers at the checkout depending on their preferred brands and categories.
Online stores are now available on multiple channels with 24/7 availability. This often requires some form of automation. By automating customer support, merchants can save time, energy, and operating capital. AI can be of great help when it comes to automation for eCommerce business owners.
With automation, an eCommerce business can manage and execute all repetitive tasks and simplify the front and back-end workflow. With AI, eCommerce businesses can automate everything from featuring new products on multiple channels to synchronizing sales, identifying high-risk transactions, offering discounts to loyal customers, etc. Additionally, shifting the burden of answering routine queries to automated chatbots allows eCommerce business owners to focus on more complicated requests.
Remarketing is more like a reminder of an eCommerce business brand and its items to the target audience. A retargeting strategy aims to reach users who are already your customers or those who have previously visited your website. These customers might have already bought from you in the past or they might have left their buying journey at some point before completing a purchase.
With the use of AI in eCommerce, online businesses can identify the behavioral pattern of every customer on the basis of sales generated and the most viewed or purchased items. This data can be used later to attract them back to your eCommerce website. Push notifications are the most powerful retargeting strategy here. These notifications are brief and straightforward, so there’s little risk of customers getting annoyed. An eCommerce business can also use personalized push notifications that provide one-on-one communication.
Businesses use AI in their remarketing campaigns as a cost-effective and helpful strategy. Remarketing places your business at the forefront of the customer’s priorities. So, next time they surf the internet for shopping, your name will be one of the first to pop into their head.
By offering a highly personalized shopping experience with the help of virtual buying assistants, AI is improving the online shopping experience for both customers and retailers.
The technology also offers advanced ways to identify customers’ behavior and analyze big data to help eCommerce stores engage, segment, and retarget their customers. Pulling off a highly personalized customer experience is key to the prosperity of an online business. AI applications can identify and analyze consumer data to forecast future purchasing patterns and make product recommendations depending on the browsing patterns of the consumers.
According to a rough calculation, a report by “Business insider” stated that nearly 85% of customer interactions would be managed without a human by 2020. With emails, phone calls, and chats being efficiently and quickly responded to by automated systems, these stats appear to have been realistic.
